This is the general announcement for the 2012 Virginia Commonwealth University Spring Tournament. This is a high school academic quizbowl tournament, to be held at New Kent High School on Saturday, March 10th from 8:30 AM until shortly after 4:30 PM.

LOCATION, DIRECTIONS, PARKING: The tournament will take place at New Kent High School, in scenic New Kent County, Virginia located at 7365 Egypt Rd New Kent, Virginia 23124. From my previous experience in traveling to New Kent, this is just a few miles off Interstate 64 exit 214. There should be plenty of parking outside the building available.

AFFILIATION: This tournament has been certified as a Platinum standard tournament by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence and will be an opportunity to qualify for the National Scholastics Championship (pace-nsc.org), which is run by PACE and will occur in June 2011. The top 25% of the field will qualify.

QUESTIONS: The questions will be a collaboration between the teams of VCU and our friends and counterparts at The Ohio State University.

FORMAT: This tournament will use the traditional tossup/bonus format. A round will consist of 20 tossups with correct tossup answers earning a team a bonus in which it can earn up to 30 additional points, using broken into three questions each worth 10 points. Teams will be seeded to preliminary groupings before being reseeded based on record. All teams will be offered a minimum of 9 games. Trophies will be awarded to the top teams, and book prizes will be awarded to the top individual scorers. The VCU team reserves the right to cap the field based on availability of space and staff.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:-The fee structure is as follows:Base fee: $70 per team. There is no limit to the number of teams who can attend from one school.Buzzer discount: $5 off school's total fee for each fully functional system (control box and eight activators all work)-no limit to # of systems you can bringStaff discount: $10 off school's total fee. This could be a coach, parent, student who is not playing, etc. Team-provided staffers will keep score for various games not involving the team with which they are affiliated. Volunteer staffers must stay through all the games (except finals) in order to receive credit for their school. There is no limit to the number of staffers you can bring.Travel: $10 off the school's fee for every 150 one-way miles traveled to New Kent High school between your school's address and New Kent High School according to Google Maps.Minimum fee: The minimum fee is $0 (you can bring enough buzzers and staffers to eliminate your entire fee via discounts, but you cannot have a "negative fee.")

-To register, e- mail me at georgeberry.vcu@gmail.com with the number of teams, buzzers, and staffers you want to bring, and an email address where you can be contacted with details. We are also requiring a cell phone contact number belonging to someone who will be attending the tournament, so that we can track you down if you are running late. Feel free to share this announcement with any schools that you think would be interested in attending. There is no further registration form or other action needed on your part in order to be officially registered; you only need to e-mail me at that address with the information requested. Posts made in this thread will not be considered official registrations; you must e-mail me.

METHOD OF PAYMENT: All teams must pay by the day of the tournament. We prefer to accept payment in person right before the tournament starts, but we will accept checks by mail ahead of time if your procedures require it. Teams who do not pay by the day of the tournament will be charged a $25 penalty and will have two weeks to pay their total amount before we start mailing letters to your school administration about it.We can accept cash, personal checks, or checks from school, school district, or quizbowl club funds. We have no ability to process purchase orders, credit cards, Paypal, or any other forms of payment. Bringing forms of payment outside of the three listed will be considered nonpayment and subject you to the $25 late payment penalty.We will contact registered teams with instructions on who to make the checks out to. If you require a pre-tournament invoice in order to have a check cut, let us know by Feburary 24th so that we can send you the paperwork in time. If you do not let us know about this requirement by Feburary 24th, and it causes you to come to the tournament without your payment, then you will be subject to the $25 late payment penalty.

TEAM & ROSTER SIZE: There may be a maximum of six players on one team's roster, up to four of whom may play at one time. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you bring more than six players, you must register a second team to have all of them play. There is a halftime substitution opportunity in each game. Each player may appear on only one team's roster throughout the day-no switching from the B team to the A team, etc. Teams may also play shorthanded with only three players. Teams consisting of fewer than three players may not play without my express prior permission.

FOOD: Neither breakfast nor lunch will be provided by the tournament. We will provide a list of suggested eateries for the lunch break.

Please e-mail me if you have any further questions. I'm looking forward to seeing a wide variety of teams from Virginia and surrounding states on the 10th.

I have expanded the field to 18. Further registrations beyond 18 will be welcome, but will be placed on a wait list where they will be added in case of further expansion/drops in the order they register.

If one more team signs up, I think I will be able to expand the field to 21 and let cosby and Varina's b teams in off the waitlist. If you are still interested in playing this tournament, please contact me ASAP.